CD Baby Lowers Digital Sales Commission From 25% To 9% — The Lowest Rate Of Any Digital Music Retailer

CD Baby, the world's largest online distributor of independent music, has announced that it will be lowering its cut of MP3 download sales on cdbaby.com.

CD Baby's online retail store sells thousands of downloads every day, and the resulting revenue bypasses the major-label system and gets paid directly to artists. CD Baby has decided to further empower independent musicians by reducing their admin fee from 25% to 9% — lower than any other digital music retailer, including iTunes, Amazon, BandCamp, Reverb Nation, and others.

"Our mission has always been to help musicians earn the most money from their music," says CD Baby president Brian Felsen. "Towards that end, I'm excited to announce that we'll be lowering the admin fee we take of MP3 sales on cdbaby.com to just 9% — which matches our traditional digital distribution commission."

CD Baby's admin fee for digital sales through its retail partners (including Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Rdio, and many others) has been at 9% since 2004. Now all CD Baby digital sales are subject to this same low commission percentage, whether the music was purchased directly from cdbaby.com or from one of CD Baby's digital music partners.

The new 9% rate also holds true for digital sales through any of CD Baby's Direct-to-Fan sales tools, including the 45,000+ CD Baby MusicStore For Facebook Apps installed by artists, as well as the thousands of Music Store Widgets that allow CD Baby artists to sell music on their own websites.

Traditional digital music retailers pay artists up to 70% per sale; other direct-to-fan options pay 85% or less. With CD Baby, musicians will earn 91% of every digital sale, with no annual fees and no hidden costs.

"The 9% is effective immediately," says Felsen. "It's simple: Artists make more money when they sell music through CD Baby. We are the best place for artists to get their music to a worldwide market. With CD Baby, bands can give fans one convenient place to purchase CDs, vinyl, and MP3s — and earn the most money doing it!"